Photos from the National Museum trip :)

Its the museum open house with free admission to the public!, and whats better than not spending a cent, and yet enjoy the artistic atmosphere that the museum has to offer. It was pretty much a coincidence as I found that the museum is free to the public just when I was looking for some cheap and cool activities to do in Singapore. Well, it was an interesting trip to the national museum and I will let the pictures do the talking as I camwhored with my Samsung U900 =p.

Jars of food smells

Looking out
(tom)

Wow, say wow to the jars
(Me)

Personal Uniqueness

Listening to old songs

Headphones on the neck

Rolling the hotbowl

Tae Kwan do in a [hermm]

Posing, blend with the artistically designed wall

Lamps decor swinging

There are more photos taken, but it seems like I have camwhored, so I'm not posting them here :p. Perhaps if you asked.. tsk tsk!

Shopping at Christmas (special post) Istimewa

Ever been shopping on Christmas day. You think everyone will be at home under some mistletoe tree, enjoying opening their presents and sharing their joy right~ No, lol, not in Singapore. In this economic situation that Singapore is facing now, whats more important than searching around for cheap and good deals that many stores have to offer in this last minute christmas sale. (Typical Singaporean,... wait I'm branding myself, hermmm) Thats what I experienced when I went shopping during christmas. Everyone is grabbing last minute deals. Shops like Zara, Topman, G2000, Giodarno (Is it how you spell it), Bossini, Aldo, Pedro, Samuel and Kelvin, Springfield and blah blah are offering up to 50% discount on regular price items (Sounds like advertisement huh, eh where's my commission). Clothes are flung around as everyone is searching for the clothes that fit them, but its gonna be hard guys~ all clothes are only left with 3 sizes: L, XL and XXL. So dude, lil mama's gonna tell you ~ you dont need to slim down to fit into your favourite clothes man, your favourite clothes you bought from sales, its definitely going to fit twice of you, you neeed to do the opposite yoh, MUhahahahaha. Ok watever bah, at least I got my favourite clothes yeah.

More photos after christmas in the next post, bleh

Masakan, membuat chawanmushi. (Cooking chawanmushi)

"Hey wanna come over to tom's place for dinner, I'm cooking".

"What!".

That's my reply, this is so impromptu. It's already 3 plus, and I haven't got any idea of what I want to cook. Well, supposed someone's doing the nice cooking, so I readily agreed. I made my way to tom's place and when I reached there, I was greeted with a nice pot of spaghetti with prawns and mussels. Heh, thanks guys, I ain't eating 'pawns and muscles', I can eat no seafood yar, ya know what I mean. So all of ya have eaten huh, watch me eat now huh huh, lol.

Still, I'm not eating just sphagetti while watching those cooked prawns and mussels gloating over their 'good fortune' that I can't savor them. I got to whip up something to eat. Maybe not 'buttery' wantons (some will know as it is their beloved delicacy) as its such a hassle, why not chawanmushi. This easy to cook dish takes less than 10 minutes to prepare all the necessary. Just add eggs, mushrooms, tofu, longbeans (My own mixed ingredients ok), pepper, coriander leaves, nutmeg powder, onions, salt, soy sauce and cooking oil. See, easy to make right.

Somehow there is no steamer for me to use, and I made do with a pot of water with a lid that only covers 3/4 of the pot. Steam, steam, steam. I steam the dish over 50 mins, gosh, awful abysmal steamer.

Wanna know how it taste like, haha, okok le, still edible, ask those who has eaten it.

P.s. To those who have eaten, better say nice else---

The Momos (Recipe)

A momo is a type of dumpling from the Himalayan region. This recipe comes from Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Lama.

Filling:

460g potatoes
3 Tbsp oil
6 medium sized onions, chopped
400 g mushrooms, chopped
360 g grated yak cheese, or Parmesan, Asiago, Grana Padano.*
1 bunch of fresh coriander, chopped, or parsley leaves
salt and pepper, to taste

Boil and mash the potatoes. Leave to cool. Heat the oil in a wok and cook the onions for 5 minutes until soft. Add the mushrooms, cover, and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Leave to cool. When all the vegetables are cooled, mix with the grated cheese, chopped coriander, salt, and pepper.

Dough:

460 g flour
1 3/4 to 2 1/3 cups water

Mix the flour with enough water to form a smooth dough. Roll out, but not too thinly. Cut into rounds with a round cookie cutter or a glass. Taking each round, press the edges with your thumb and first two fingers, working around the circle. On one side of the round, place a spoon of the cooled vegetable mixture, then fold over and press the edges together, making sure they are well sealed. Alternatively, hold the round in one hand, and with your thumb and forefinger gather the edges into a pleat at the top and seal.

Here is a video with instructions.

Bring the water to a boil. Place the momos on the steamer rack, spacing them well apart as they will expand and stick together if they are too close. Steam for 20 minutes, or until they are firm and glossy.

Soup:

2 Tbsp oil
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 Tbsp chopped coriander
1 vegetable stock cube
1 3/4 cups boiling water

*Alternately, use 1 Tbsp of Vegeta instead of a stock cube.

To make the soup, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, and cook until soft. Add the tomatoes and chopped coriander and cook for 5 minutes. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and add to the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Recipe adapted from AsiaRecipe.com

"Now who wanna try my man-made dumplings"

Je déteste les crabes absolument

This entry is in spur of the moment when I see crabs when I was strolling through the 'pasar malam' near my house. I REALLY dislike crabs, hairy crabs, hot chilli crabs, black pepper crabs, flower crabs,.. you name it, I hate it. I'm not gonna eat it,..... I'm allergic to it. LOL. Well, that's not the only reason why I dislike crabs, but I'm not ranting and roaring it out here.

Okok, maybe if you ask, heheh

Blog skins and the new MRT

Spent some time in the morning to change my blog template... 'Man' this takes long and I have not been doing it for sometime, in fact i have not touched HTML codes for more than a year. Changing bits here and there, I finally decided...

I'm not changing my blog template, the default template is already (somewhat) beautiful, "d'accord!". What a time consuming activity, better used on updating my entries heh.

Something interesting that I noticed today. The MRT I'm taking hasn't got any seats in one cabin. Yes you heard it right, no seats! So now nobardy gonna snatch your seats my fellow netizens. There are no seats huh. Where you gonna seat huh, on the floor huh huh lol. There are only two hand railings for people to grab, but its simply too low to grab. Everyone seems to rest their butt's on it.

Adv: "Introducing the new butt rest railings, saves space and garanteed more standing passengers on board MRT", now whos benefitting from this butt rest, lol.

Right now its only 1 cabin with no seats, the next time, it will be only 1 cabins with seats, hahaha

Le français du jour: Citation du jour

"Quand le bâtiment va, tout va.". It says when the building goes, everything goes. Now, figure that out haha.

Reading the below passage makes me want to go to Le Versailles

Lucie dort sa première nuit d'une traite et se réveille enfin à sept heures du matin. Joséphine s'est déjà debout, et a préparé un petit déjeuner à base de croissants frais et de café servi dans un petit verre. Lucie a entendu parler du fait que le café est très fort en France, du genre qui te réveille vite. « Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire aujourd'hui ? Ton premier jour en France ? » demande Joséphine.

Lucie lui propose d'aller voir le château de Versailles, qui n'est qu'à quelques pas de chez elles. Leur projet c'est d'aller voir les Jardins, le Grand Trianon et le Petit Trianon. Elles se promènent dans les jardins, où se trouvent plus de 300 statues, de vases et d'autres antiquités. C'est la collection d'antiquité la plus grande du monde hors d'un musée.

Lucie commence à raconter. « Comme Marie Antoinette m'intéresse beaucoup, je veux voir le Petit Trianon et le Hameau. Le Petit Trianon était une maison à l'ecart et plus petite, où Marie Antoinette faisait de grandes fêtes et on disait qu'elle avait beaucoup d'amants. Le Hameau était un cadeau de Louis XVI à sa reine quand c'était à la mode d'imiter les paysans. La reine et ses dames donnaient des rendez-vous au Hameau habillées comme des bergères pour jouer dans les Jardins. Il a été construit dans un style paysan, mais avec des décorations somptueuses

"extracted from intermediate french comprehension by Melissa Marshall"

Le premier entrée "de tout mon cœur, pardonnez-moi l'expression"

I have some spare time, so I thought to myself, maybe I should do some blogging. It could be on anything interesting, or maybe a blog to practice my french. "SO my entrée is going be a mix of English and really basic French, and maybe some melayu, heh heh." Its been sometime since I 'plaquer' my 'old' blog, and while I'm not going to say the reason, I'm starting a new one which I will try to update regularly. Tsk tsk, what an irony. Today's post marks my premier entrée, and I'm not going to start with gossiping or ranting. Nor am I going to make it long....





So I'm stopping here till my next entry. Hahaha